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BURIEN, Wash. - A Burien man accused of shooting up a car carrying a woman and children after coming to believe they were following him has been charged with assault.

King County prosecutors contend Edward L. Kemp admitted to shooting at the car after it passed his girlfriend’s home a second time. The driver, a woman unknown to Kemp, told police she followed Kemp to the Burien apartment because he narrowly missed striking her SUV while running a red light minutes before.

Previously convicted of pimping, Kemp, 20, also faces an unlawful gun possession charge. According to charging papers, Kemp admitted to owning a pistol, telling King County detectives he needed to protect himself from people he knew in his “past gang life.”

“The defendant’s actions were incredibly dangerous,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Dana Cashman said in court papers. “He chose to open fire on an SUV occupied by four innocent people – three of them children. …

“He was very lucky that none of the occupants was injured.”

Just after 8 p.m. on Nov. 19, the woman was driving her children in Burien when a Saturn sedan blew through an intersection in front of her, a King County detective said in court papers. Believing the driver might be drunk, she followed him to the Burien Continental Apartments, located at 11817 First Ave. S.

Having already reported the license number of the offending car to police, the woman drove past the entrance to the apartment complex several times to spot its address.

On her second pass, a man since identified as Kemp jumped out of some shrubbery and opened fire on her car, the detective said in charging papers, recounting the woman’s statements. The woman sped away while calling 911; the call-taker heard the woman yelling at her children to “get down!”

At least two bullets struck the woman’s Ford Explorer. Investigators later found one bullet had been deflected by the rear seat carrying two children, aged 8 and 9.

Deputies arrested Kemp the following day. He had been identified as the shooter, the detective said in court papers. The detective said Kemp was armed with a 9 mm pistol when deputies arrested him; five cartridge casings of the same caliber were recovered from the shooting scene.

According to charging papers, Kemp admitted to the shooting at the woman’s SUV.

“Kemp stated that he believed ‘someone’ in the car was ‘after him’ so as the SUV drove past … he fired multiple times,” the detective said in charging papers.

Kemp went on to claim he was attempting to shoot “around” the Explorer.

Charged with three counts of second-degree assault as well as unlawful gun possession, Kemp remains jailed on $1 million bail. He has not yet entered a plea.